Making the Most out of your Listening Resources

Listening resources are a great tool that are heavily used in the primary classrooms, however, there are lots of benefits to using "Listening to Reading" in the upper elementary classrooms as well. They provide a fluent model for students and can help to increase student's vocabulary. This is especially important in classrooms where there is a larger population of Learning Support or ELL students. One problem that many teachers encounter though is that there are not enough age appropriate resources for those upper elementary students or they do not have time to fit "Listening to Reading" into their busy schedules...until now...

This year our Language Arts block is transitioning from a 120 minute block to a 90 minute block. Therefore, that doesn't leave a lot of time for students to be able to listen to reading. The reasoning is because our teachers now have to teach Science and Social Studies everyday. Therefore, we need to be clever with how to implement this. One way is to use cross curricular resources for listening.

Science: Many programs come with their textbooks on CD. During this block of time students can use the CD for "Listen to Reading." Our new science program "Interactive Science" by Pearson has a leveled reader database available. You can register your account (via the green cardboard case with the registration code inside) and access content leveled readers that are available by many different leveling systems, including the DRA. You can then electronically assign readers to students where they can listen to the selection read aloud online by a fluent reader.

What more could you ask for?

Scholastic Readers: There is a student view for your student's scholastic reader online. You can put the link on your website and have students access it from their net books. You can have it read to them using the on level feature or below level feature. View the online user guide below to see all of the Scholastic Reader's features:

Scholastic Online User Guide
Cross curricular resources are a great way to fit in those standards
that that we need to teach to help our students become better readers.

Happy Listening!

Listen to Reading

Listening activities are very important in a Balanced Literacy Program. They provide a fluent model for students to hear and learn from. When listening activities are made available, students can listen to examples of fluent readers and then understand what goes into being a fluent or prosodic reader. (i.e.; phrasing, intonation, expression, & rate)

All levels of learners can benefit from the practice of Listening to Reading. By developing good fluency, they will be able to recognize a vast majority of words instantly and effortlessly, thus leaving more cognitive capacity for comprehension. (Rasinski & Kuhn, 2007, P. 205) In addition, they may be exposed to a text they otherwise would not be able to read independently, thereby increasing exposure to higher level vocabulary.


Here are FREE resources that you can use for "Listen to Reading":

Barnes & Noble has an online storytime that is free. Click here.

The Screen Actors Guild has a free online video streaming program where famous actors read popular children's books. Click here.

Read to Me is a online youth reading program. Watch online streaming of videos of children's books read aloud by celebrities. Click here.

Robert Munsch is a great author who has recorded himself reading his wonderful children's books. Click here.

Mem Fox is an award winning author who has many read alouds available on her website. Click here.

Kizclub has a variety of books read aloud for beginning readers. Click here.

Starfall is a great site that isn't just for phonics practice. It also has read alongs for a variety of primary readers. Click here.

Don't forget the power of Youtube. Here is a blogger who has posted great read alouds she found on youtube. Click here.

You can also search for your own on the following sites:

Youtube.com

Teachertube.com

Schooltube.com




Here are resources for "Listen to Reading" that require a fee:

Scholastic's new online literacy resource. Click here.

Educational and fun animated children's books. Click here.




Raz-kids is a compilation of hundreds of interactive ebooks for students grades K-6. Click here.

Tumblebooks is an online collection of animated talking picture books. Click here.


Happy Reading!


Gambrell, L.(2007).Best Practices in Literacy Instruction: Third Edition. New York: Guilford Press.

I PICK Rap

To be consistent with my last two posts, I also wanted to post a Youtube video I found that follows "The Daily Five's" I PICK for choosing a just right book. I think this song is BRILLIANT because there is no way a student will forget each part of I PICK after learning this song.

See the embedded video below. I will also provide the link at the bottom for you to use at your discretion.



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfecFjBHfc8

The Daily 5: Fast Facts Edition

You've waited for them, now they've finally arrived!!! DAILY FIVE FAST FACTS! Yay! Below are chapters 1 through 7 of my fast facts (otherwise known as cliff notes for teachers). The Fast Facts below help to highlight the key points to help you implement the Daily Five in your classroom.

Daily Five Fast Facts
Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: From "Management" to "Principled Habits": Foundations of the Daily Five

Chapter 3: What's the Difference?: Key Materials, Concepts, and Routines for Launching the Daily Five

Chapter 4: Read to Self

Chapter 5: Read to Someone and Listen to Reading

Chapter 6: Work on Writing and Word Work

Chapter 7: Putting it All Together and Troubleshooting


I would HIGHLY recommend reading the book if you want to implement the program with fidelity. If you don't have the book, there are a couple of things that you can do:

1) Borrow the book from me!:)

2) Check out the book from the NSE library. (Our wonderful librarian ordered it for me last year)

3) Buy it from Amazon.com. Its quite reasonably priced.

Remember, the Daily Five is not a literacy curriculum, but merely a framework you can use to foster independent readers & writers during your literacy block.

Happy Reading!

The Daily 5: Resources Edition

Have you decided to implement The Daily Five in your classroom, but need resources? Well you are in for a treat! This post is a compilation of resources that I have found on the web that would prove to be very helpful during your literacy block.

First, I wanted to start with this amazing slide share I found overviewing the Daily 5. See below:

FOSTERING INDEPENDENCE WITH THE DAILY FIVE from Angela Maiers

Second, I will be sharing a Google doc that I made compiling some of the most useful resources that I have found and my Daily 5 Pinboard. See below:

Daily 5 Resources
Daily 5 Pinboard
Third and final, a word of caution. There is a large amount of Daily 5 resources out on the web. Be careful with what you choose to use and make sure it is reflective of the Daily 5 management system for your literacy block.

Happy Reading!

Fast Facts

My current role at my school is a Reading Specialist. My lesser known role is a Literacy Coach. What is a Literacy Coach exactly? Well According the the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse, a Literacy Coach helps to engage teachers in professional learning. Seems broad right? I look at that role as more of a helper to teachers. One way I can help is by providing current research.

The book I am finishing up right now is "The Daily Five" by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser, otherwise known as "The Sisters." I absolutely love the book and think everyone should read it.

Now I am going to be the quintessential teacher for a moment; raise of hands of who has time to read educational literature during the school year? No one? Exactly! Therefore, I am taking something I learned from one of my Literacy Coaching Classes to solve this problem. They are called Fast Facts. Fast facts are like cliff notes for teachers. They highlight the key points of each chapter of a book. Teachers are able to then quickly peruse the Fast Facts and be up on current research more easily. These may also entice them to read some of the books that I have completed the Fast Facts for.

Here is my first set of Fast Facts as a Literacy Coach that I will be making available to my staff. Its an introduction to the book "The Daily Five." However, this are more of a draft.

I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK!

I want to know the following:

-Would you consider this a fast read?
-Are you gaining new information on the topic?
-Would you be enticed to read more fast facts on this book or better yet, would you want to read the book after reading these fast facts?
-If you've read "The Daily Five", do these fast facts accurately depict the book?

Comment please! The more feedback the better!

Click here for my Fast Facts on "The Daily Five - Chapter 1."